How to rate a student: where to begin

What a rating produces

For each student, the determination produces one tier of intensity (1–8) and up to two service groups. The tier is calculated from five domains of support a student may need. Each domain contains four factors to rate. Groups 1–3 are set by related-services minutes; Groups 4–5 by either dedicated 1:1 staffing or services delivered offsite.

Rubric vocabulary

The rubric is built from a small set of repeating parts.

A domain is one of five areas of support: What is a domain

• Curriculum & Instruction — how instruction must be adapted, delivered, and supported for the student to access and progress in grade-level content
• Behavior — the behavioral, emotional, and regulatory supports the student needs to engage safely in instruction and school routines
• Communication — the supports the student needs to understand, express, and exchange information across the school day
• Independent Functioning — the supports the student needs to manage routines, transitions, organization, and self-management
• Personal Care/Health — the personal care, health, and medical supports the student needs to attend and participate in school safely

A factor is a specific type of rating for every domain: What is a factor

• Factor A — type, nature, and frequency of services: the combined minutes and pervasiveness of direct specially designed instruction (SDI) the student requires in that domain.
• Factor B — required provider credentials: whether the services require specific certifications, licensure, or qualifications.
• Factor C — required ratio: whether a reduced provider-to-student ratio is required, beyond what is typical for same-age peers, to deliver the services.
• Factor D — required equipment or technology: whether equipment or assistive technology beyond what peers use is essential for the student to participate.

A service group reflects how much provider time a student receives, separate from intensity: Service groups

• Groups 1–3 — created from total related-services minutes per six-week period
• Groups 4–5 — created from the share of the instructional day a student needs a dedicated 1:1 provider, or from the hours per week a student receives services offsite

An override is a situation that sets the tier directly, regardless of the factor ratings. There are five, covered in step 4 below.

What the rubric rates

The rubric rates what the student's IEP documents and requires, using the IEP as the anchor for every determination. It measures the intensity of the specially designed instruction and related supports a student needs to access and progress in their enrolled grade-level curriculum — the professional support the disability requires, as documented by the ARD committee.

A few principles govern how every factor is rated across domains: Glossary

• Direct services drive the rating. Specially designed instruction (SDI) is the adaptation of content, methodology, or delivery to meet a student's disability-related needs. A direct service delivers that instruction or support to the student to address IEP goals; an indirect service supports the delivery — staff coaching, planning — and counts only when it is student-specific, ongoing, and essential. A domain with no direct service is rated 0.
• Rate what's beyond typical for same-age peers. Intensity is measured against what peers of the same age or grade level require.
• Don't count one support across multiple domains. When a single support — a reduced ratio, a piece of equipment — serves more than one domain, rate it in the domain it is primarily required for. For example, if a 1:1 ratio is required mainly for independent functioning, with behavior and curriculum benefiting as a side effect, it is rated in Independent Functioning only. It is rated in more than one domain only when the IEP requires it for FAPE in each of them.

How to rate

1. Review the student's IEP, focusing on the SDI
   • Read the present levels, the goals, and the schedule of services to understand what specially designed instruction and related supports the student requires.
   • The four factors tell you what to look for: the type and amount of direct service in each domain (A), the credentials the providers must hold (B), any required reduced ratio (C), and any required equipment or technology (D).
   • Note any related-services minutes and any dedicated 1:1 time, which feed the service groups in step 3.
   • Watch for a case that calls for an override, such as a student whose only service is speech, and carry it to step 4.
2. Rate the factors in each domain
   • For each of the five domains, ask first whether the student receives any direct service in that area. Most students have direct service in only one to three domains; the rest are rated 0 without further work, so your attention goes to the domains where there is real specialized instruction.
   • In each domain that has service, rate the four factors by matching what the IEP documents to the rubric level whose language fits. The highest of a domain's four factor ratings becomes that domain's score.
     • Curriculum & Instruction · Behavior · Communication · Independent Functioning · Personal Care/Health
   • Once all factors across the domains are rated, the five domain scores produce a tier from 1 to 7 — most from the sum of the scores (Tiers 1–5), and the top two from particular patterns of significant ratings (Tiers 6 and 7). How scores become a tier explains the ladder and those patterns.
3. Calculate minutes for the service groups.
   • Sum the related-services minutes across all related services for a six-week period:
     • Group 1: at least 180 and less than 270 minutes
     • Group 2: at least 270 and less than 540 minutes
     • Group 3: at least 540 minutes
     • A note for students with speech and language services:
       • For speech-only students, these minutes do not count as a related service, because the speech is the student's instructional service.
       • For students with other instructional services, the speech becomes a related service and its minutes are summed with the rest.
   • For Groups 4–5, check either route — a student qualifies through one or the other, and the two groups are mutually exclusive:
     • Dedicated 1:1 provider, as a share of the instructional day: Group 4 at 50% to under 80%, Group 5 at 80% or more.
     • Services delivered offsite by district staff (at home, a hospital or medical facility, or another facility the district doesn't operate), as hours per week: Group 4 under 4 hours, Group 5 at 4 hours or more.
   • With these minutes calculated, the tool assigns the groups. Service groups
4. Mark any overrides.
   • Five situations produce an override, and the tier is then set by the override rather than the factors. Even when an override applies, rate every factor anyway — those ratings still drive scheduling and staffing.
     • A student whose only instructional service is speech → Tier 1
     • A child aged 0–2 served at home or a center where the school system isn't the ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) provider → Tier 1
     • A child aged 3–5 enrolled with the school system but served at home, a hospital, or a medical facility → Tier 1
     • An ARD-determined day placement → Tier 7
     • An ARD-determined residential placement → Tier 8

Where to go next

If you're…	Read
brand new to the rubric	what is a domain, what is a factor
building intuition before you rate	the four factor pieces (A–D)
rating a student right now	the five domain pieces
reading every factor the right way	glossary
working out how the domain scores produced a tier	tiers & output layer
placing a student in service groups	service groups